Prior Norge is a defunct

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

white meat In culinary terms, white meat is meat which is pale in color before and after cooking. In traditional gastronomy, ''white meat'' also includes rabbit, the flesh of milk-fed young mammals (in particular veal and lamb), and sometimes pork. In ecotro ...

and

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

processing company organised as an

agricultural cooperative An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity. A broad typology of agricultural cooperatives distinguishes between agricultural service cooperati ...

. The company merged with

Gilde Norsk Kjøtt Gilde Norsk Kjøtt is a defunct Norwegian red meat processing company organised as an agricultural cooperative. The company was by far the largest processor in the country when it merged with Prior Norge in 2006 to create Nortura.Solholm, Roll ...

in 2006 to create

Nortura Nortura is a Norwegian agricultural cooperative that operates slaughterhouses and other processing plants related to meat and eggs. The company was created as a merger between Gilde Norsk Kjøtt and Prior Norge in 2006, and has head offices i ...

. The

Prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

brand is still used.

History

The first national union of the egg cooperative was founded on October 25, 1919, when six local egg centres created Norske Eggcentral A/L. At this time, 180,000 Norwegian households, or 30% of all households, had their own

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s. By 1929 eggs compromised 98% of the revenue of Norske Eggcentral, white meat 2%. The central started with quality sorting and marking of all eggs in 1934 and the brand ''Sol-egg'' was introduced. During and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

there was rationing of eggs in Norway, but this was suspended in 1949. In the 1950s the egg central started active marketing through

advertisement Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

s and in 1977 the ''Sol-egg'' brand was replaced with the

brand on all eggs and white meat. During the 1990s the Norwegian chicken

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

was replaced by a meatier, Scottish breed called Ross. In 1999 the company changed its name to Prior Norge, and two years later organised as a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

with egg packaging facilities and

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s owned by three regional companies. These were again

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

in 2003. By 2005 the white meat sector had passed the egg sector in revenue. On 1 November 2006 Prior merged with Gilde Norsk Kjøtt to create Nortura. The Prior brand still lives on. {{Authority control Food and drink companies of Norway Defunct companies of Norway Cooperatives in Norway Agricultural cooperatives Food and drink companies established in 1919 Companies disestablished in 2006 Norwegian companies established in 1919 2006 disestablishments in Norway Agriculture companies of Norway